Diamond Dirt: Injuries are going to happen in baseball

Saturday

May 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMMay 28, 2011 at 3:25 AM

San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey broke his leg in a collision at home plate Wednesday night, and he’s probably out for the season. Now the crybabies are out there saying that Major League Baseball should have fines, ejections and what not if a collision at the plate appears to be intentional or could have been avoided.

Dominic Genetti

San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey broke his leg in a collision at home plate Wednesday night, and he’s probably out for the season.

Now the crybabies are out there saying that Major League Baseball should have fines, ejections and what not if a collision at the plate appears to be intentional or could have been avoided.

Boo-hoo-hoo.

Guess what folks, collisions at the plate are part of the game and catchers know that.

When a catcher positions himself over the plate in the base path, he’s in the runner’s territory. That base path belongs to the runner and he is allowed to plow through in an effort to avoid the tag and score. If you don’t like it, don’t watch or play baseball, because that’s the way it goes.

Same applies on the base paths on the rest of the diamond. This is why baseball players are tough, only one guy out of nine needs pads.

America, over the last 20 years or so, has had a stick up its backside to be so politically correct in actions and terminology that it’s gotten out of hand. "Merry Christmas" isn’t the proper thing to say anymore, and if I fly the Confederate flag I’m a racist. Well, so much for spreading warmth and cheer and flying a piece of history. It’s a shame the country has come to this lifestyle of saying and doing things a certain way just to be on the safe side. Perhaps we need another decade like the ’70s where everyone rebels and we can once again have a very laid-back culture in this country.

But there’s no room for this kind of crud in baseball.

What makes baseball such a great game is that it’s an old fashioned battle; eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. If someone gets hit by a pitch or gets taken out at second base on a steal or double play break-up, you can bet the other team is going to respond in the same fashion. That’s what the competitive edge of baseball has been built on for centuries and for a few crazy eights to come out of left field and shake their fingers at some of this is unnecessary.

It’s bad enough any pitches that might have one get away or are unintentionally inside on the batter spark a warning from the umpires. Pitchers can’t even be fearsome on the mound anymore because if they pitch too close inside, they’ll be warned or ejected. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Pitchers should be able to use actions to make a statement to batters.

In the old days, if you so much as crowded the plate you were going to have a pitch coming at you. In the old days, pitchers were the guys batters didn’t mess with. After all, they’re throwing a rock at you 80 to 90-plus miles an hour.

Think of the scene in "Field of Dreams" when Archie Graham winks at the pitcher.

The pitcher throws inside, forcing Graham down and he turns to the umpire and says, “Hey ump, how ‘bout a warning?”

In response the umpire says, “Sure, watch you don’t get killed.” And then begins to chuckle.

That wouldn’t happen today.

The umpire would whip his mask off and point to both dugouts, issuing a warning.

Shame, shame, shame. It’s a shame it’s come to that.

Can you imagine Bob Gibson or Don Drysdale pitching today? I’d like to, but they wouldn’t last more than a pitch or two.

Drysdale used to send batters to the ground because he didn’t like it when they dug into the batter’s box.

And for guys whose stance crowded the plate, a battle against Drysdale was quite the workout. I can’t tell you how much I’ve read and seen in documentaries that players would go down several times an at-bat when they faced Drysdale.

Gibson had a lot of reasons for throwing inside, most of the time it was to send a message, but he, too, was someone who was not going to allow someone to step into the batter’s box and beat him in the battle. Sure, batters were successful and were able to get hits off of him, but it took a lot of work to do so.

I was working on a piece one time in college and I was able to interview Bobby Tolan, a back-up outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals during the ’60s. Something he told me about Gibson was that he’s a nice guy and a good friend, but on the baseball field he’s all business.

Tolan left St. Louis for the Cincinnati Reds in 1969, and I remember he told me his first battle with Gibson resulted in a hit-by-pitch. Tolan said that was Gibson’s message of “We’re not teammates anymore.”

Today, Gibson would’ve been tossed, fined and maybe even suspended.

And now there’s talks sparking of protecting catchers on collisions.

My, my, my. What is this world coming to that we can’t even play baseball without folks spazzing over something?

Scott Cousins, the Florida Marlins runner who slammed into Posey, had a clean hit and had all the reasons to score the way he did. It just so happens that Posey got hurt on the play.

If Posey was a thicker guy, he’d be fine. He’s just too skinny to be a catcher.

Look at guys like Yadier Molina, Ivan Rodriguez, Johnny Bench and Josh Gibson. These catchers are nowhere near skinny and they can/could take a tackle. Catchers are supposed to be the chubby, thick dudes behind the plate and that’s not Posey.

I’d suggest the Babe Ruth diet for Posey, last season’s Rookie of the Year.

Some beer, hamburgers, steaks and hot dogs should thicken you up when you come back from your injury.